the higher learning in america-第52章
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loosely speculative fashion; men also look to the higher learning
as the ripe fulfilment of material competency; rather than as a
means to material success。 In their thoughtful intervals; the
most businesslike pragmatists will avow such an ideal。 But in
workday detail; when the question turns concretely on the
advisability of the higher education; the workday habit of
pecuniary traffic asserts itself; and the matter is then likely
to be argued in pecuniary terms。 The barbarian animus; habitual
to the quest of gain; reverts; and the deliberation turns on the
gainfulness of this education; which has in all sobriety been
acknowledged the due end of culture and endeavour。 So that; in
working out the details; this end of living is made a means; and
the means is made an end。
No doubt; what chiefly urges men to the pursuit of knowledge
is their native bent of curiosity; an impulsive proclivity to
master the logic of facts; just as the chief incentive to the
achievement of children has; no doubt; always been the parental
bent。 But very much as the boorish element in the present and
recent generations will let the pecuniary use of children come in
as a large subsidiary ground of decision; and as they have even
avowed this to be their chief concern in the matter; so; in a
like spirit; men trained to the business system of competitive
gain and competitive spending will not be content to find that
they can afford the quest of that knowledge which their human
propensity incites them to cultivate; but they must back this
propensity with a shamefaced apology for education on the plea of
its gainfulness。
What is here said of the businesslike spirit of the latterday
〃educators〃 is not to be taken as reflecting disparagingly on
them or their endeavours。 They respond to the call of the times
as best they can。 That they do so; and that the call of the times
is of this character; is a fact of the current drift of things;
which one may commend or deprecate according as one has the
fortune to fall in with one or the other side of the case; that
is to say according to one's habitual bent; but in any event it
is to be taken as a fact of the latterday situation; and a factor
of some force and permanence in the drift of things academic; for
the present and the calculable future。 It means a more or less
effectual further diversion of interest and support from science
and scholarship to the competitive acquisition of wealth; and
therefore also to its competitive consumption。 Through such a
diversion of energy and attention in the schools; the pecuniary
animus at large; and pecuniary standards of worth and value;
stand to gain; more or less; at the cost of those other virtues
that are; by the accepted tradition of modern Christendom; held
to be of graver and more enduring import。 It means an endeavour
to substitute the pursuit of gain and expenditure in place of the
pursuit of knowledge; as the focus of interest and the objective
end in the modern intellectual life。
This incursion of pecuniary ideals in academic policy is seen
at its broadest and baldest in the Schools of Commerce;
〃Commerce and Politics;〃 〃Business Training;〃 〃Commerce and
Administration;〃 〃Commerce and Finance;〃 or whatever may be the
phrase selected to designate the supersession of learning by
worldly wisdom。 Facility in competitive business is to take the
place of scholarship; as the goal of university training;
because; it is alleged; the former is the more useful。 The ruling
interest of Christendom; in this view; is pecuniary gain。 And
training for commercial management stands to this ruling interest
of the modern community in a relation analogous to that in which
theology and homiletics stood to the ruling interest in those
earlier times when the salvation of men's souls was the prime
object of solicitude。 Such a seminary of business has something
of a sacerdotal dignity。 It is the appointed keeper of the higher
business animus。(7*)
Such a school; with its corps of instructors and its
equipment; stands in the university on a tenure similar to that
of the divinity school。 Both schools are equally extraneous to
that 〃intellectual enterprise〃 in behalf of which; ostensibly;
the university is maintained。 But while the divinity school
belongs to the old order and is losing its preferential hold on
the corporation of learning; the school of commerce belongs to
the new order and is gaining ground。 The primacy among pragmatic
interests has passed from religion to business; and the school of
commerce is the exponent and expositor of this primacy。 It is the
perfect flower of the secularization of the universities。 And as
has already been remarked above; there is also a wide…sweeping
movement afoot to bend the ordinary curriculum of the higher
schools to the service of this cult of business principles; and
so to make the ordinary instruction converge to the advancement
of business enterprise; very much as it was once dutifully
arranged that the higher instruction should be subservient to
religious teaching and consonant with the demands of devout
observances and creeds。
It is not that the College of Commerce stands alone as the
exponent of worldly wisdom in the modern universities; nor is its
position in this respect singular; except in the degree of its
remoteness from all properly academic interests。 Other training
schools; as in engineering and in the other professions; belong
under the same general category of practical aims; as contrasted
with the aims of the higher learning。 But the College of Commerce
stands out pre…eminent among these various training schools in
two respects: (a) While the great proportion of training for the
other professions draws largely on the results of modern science
for ways and means; and therefore includes or presumes a degree
of familiarity with the work; aims and methods of the sciences;
so that these schools have so much of a bond of community with
the higher learning; the school of commerce on the other hand
need scarcely take cognizance of the achievements of science; nor
need it presume any degree of acquaintance on the part of its
students or adepts with the matter or logic of the sciences;(8*)
(b) in varying degrees; the proficiency given by training in the
other professional schools; and required for the efficient
pursuit of the other professions; may be serviceable to the
community at large; whereas the business proficiency inculcated
by the schools of commerce has no such serviceability; being
directed singly to a facile command of the ways and means of
private gain。(9*) The training that leads up to the several other
professions; of course; varies greatly in respect of its draught
on scientific information; as well as in the degree of its
serviceability to the community; some of the professions; as; e。
g。; Law; approach very close to the character of business
training; both in the unscientific and unscholarly nature of the
required training and in their uselessness to the community;
while others; as; e。 g。; Medicine and the various lines of
engineering; differ widely from commercial training in both of
these respects。 With the main exception of Law (and; some would
add; of Divinity?) the professional schools train men for work
that is of some substantial use to the community at large。 This
is particularly true of the technological schools。 But while the
technological schools may be occupied with work that